With some shimmer and shine, it’s easy to make things merry and bright for the holidays. Home exteriors traditionally get the attention, with many displays visible from space. But why not create a magical wonderland inside, where you and your family can enjoy it every night? LED bulbs and faux branches, candles and shimmery accents add a fun twist.

Q I hope you can give us some suggestions as to what is best to plant on a hillside in poor soil and is not liked by gophers. Red apple iceplant (Aptenia hybrid) seems to do well but is eventually eaten by gophers.

REDLANDS >> The owners of six homes decked out for the holidays opened their doors to the public on Sunday in support of the YMCA of the East Valley. The YMCA held its 49th annual Holiday Home Tour, which raises money for the nonprofit and its efforts to serve the community through its Legal Aid Clinic.

Poinsettias and pine will never be passé for the holidays, but try mixing in new foliage for a refreshing and unexpected delightful twist. All it takes is a dash of red, some green for good measure, fruit and a lot of creativity.

First avocados, then guacamole Harvest Fuerte avocados from now through March by cutting stems close to the fruit, not breaking them off. The crop is ready when picked fruits soften without shriveling, so try a few first to see how they do.

“Small is Beautful” was a best-selling collection of essays on economics written in 1973. The lifestyle encouraged by the author, E.F. Schumacher, would lead to “the maximum amount of well being with the minimum amount of consumption.

The results of the presidential election were a surprise to many people but, at least for plant watchers like myself, the backdrop to the photo of President-elect Donald Trump and President Barack Obama in the Oval Office was a big surprise as well.

REDLANDS >> The annual tradition of getting a Christmas tree from Buoye Farms in Redlands has come to an end. Due to changes in the agriculture industry, owner and longtime farmer Peter Buoye made the decision last year to stop selling Christmas trees.

RANCHO CUCAMONGA >> This month, the proud residents of Thoroughbred Street are once again entering the attic, opening up the storage boxes and preparing to pay a large sum on their December electric bill as part of their bid to wow tens of thousands of visitors.

Chickens have flown the coop and moved into the backyard. Kate Richards and her husband, Jonathon Ragsdale, don’t mind at all. In fact, they bought their 108-year-old Sierra Madre farmhouse with one thing in mind — chickens, make that baby chicks.

There’s a reason mulberries and blackberries are so attractive to birds. In whatever stage of their development, whether red and unripe or black and ready to pick, mulberries and blackberries stir up avian appetites in a big way.

More tomatoes In autumn, tomatoes often grow beautifully but stop producing. Here’s a way to get one more crop from them this season. First, stop watering the tomatoes and trim back the tops of the plants a few inches (not much).

I’m sure there’s something about your home you’d like to change. Almost everyone I talk to has a notorious “list” of things they want to do. Even if it’s cleaning out the garage or attic, very few people are “finished” with their homes.

Dear Diary, I’m very concerned today. Unlike every other morning where I’m awakened by birds chirping and the smell of bacon cooking with a cup of hot coffee waiting for me next to the bed, today I was jolted out of my slumber.

Los Angeles is home to West Coast cool, if you know where to shop. It’s packed with hidden quirky stores filled with items truly special to the City of Angels. Author Desa Philadelphia in her book, “111 Shops in Los Angeles You Must Not Miss,” goes even further describing the shopping here as a paradise of local treasures filled with “unique finds” — perfect for those days when visiting a mall isn’t on the to-do list.

Winter harvest Plant cool-season vegetables within the next few weeks. These include beets, broccoli, carrots, lettuce, peas, radishes and spinach. You also can plant Swiss chard in its variety of colors, as well as parsley and more.

You do not need to take a course in garden design in order to design a garden. In fact, there is only one principle to which you need to adhere in order to achieve reasonable success in any garden design endeavor.

Move over, pumpkin spice latte, and make room for yet another way to use fall’s most versatile gourd — pumpkin planters. In this case, the colorful and plentiful vessels are teamed up with the Southern California garden stars, succulents, to create spectacular centerpieces for Halloween and Thanksgiving.

I received my “Home Energy Advisor Survey” in the mail a few weeks ago and I’ve finally had the time to review it and consider filling it out. I have been promised a new and free “Energy Saver Kit” and my own customized “Energy and Water Analysis” if I complete the survey and send it in.

REDLANDS >> Changes in seasons are hard to judge in Southern California. One easy way to know when autumn has arrived is the explosion of Inland pumpkin patches. Visitors to The Pumpkin Patch, run by The Pumpkin Factory at its farm on Live Oak Canyon Road along the Redlands-Yucaipa border, can pick pumpkins, sit on hay bales and navigate a corn maze.

The name Kalanchoe — pronounce it either ka-lan-KO-ee or ka-lan-CHO-ee and you’ll be just fine may sound strange and foreboding and, if truth be told, some of the plants included in this genus are precisely that.

‘O’ is for onion Plant onion and garlic sets from now until January. In our locale, onions do well whether started from seed, plantlets or sets (little bulbs), and you can plant additional starts every month for a successive harvest of green onions all winter long.

Mother Nature can provide gorgeous sculptures and other home accessories suitable for any decor. Just ask Caitlin Atkinson, author of “Plant Crafts.” “Plants bring in that sort of life and the outside, expanding the eye and allowing the outside in,” Atkinson said.

If you happen to have a persistently annoying insect pest in your garden, doing absolutely nothing about it may be the best form of managing its spread long term. In due course, natural predators — ladybugs, lacewings, pirate bugs or parasitic wasps — are likely to find the offending pest and begin to feast upon it.

Recently, I started to explain the process involved in typical homeowner insurance claim — such as a water-damaged kitchen — and we were focusing in on the estimating process used by most insurance companies and contractors that do insurance claims work.

It’s a hot afternoon in late September, and the Glendora Library Garden is a riot of wildlife activity. Monarch butterflies flit about the purple floral spires of “Santa Barbara” Mexican Bush Sage, honey bees visit the yellow daisy-like blossoms of a Chocolate Flower plant, and a small lizard hurries across the decomposed granite path into the silvery variegated Abelia Radiance, with its white clusters of fragrant trumpet-shaped flowers.

• Cooling trend: Daytime temperatures will soon be getting cooler (believe it or not) as days grow shorter, and plants will require less water. Hopefully within the next couple of weeks you can start gradually reducing the amount of water you put on the lawn and other shrubbery and then stop watering completely for the winter.

It’s time to leave summer behind, embrace fall and get your hands dirty. Spring may get all the props as the season of rebirth and renewal, but autumn also is a time for gardening in Southern California, especially vegetables and herbs.

Eleanor Porter, who lives in Laguna Hills, sent this email: “I need my whole yard of 2,500 square feet re-sodded. I have no grass now. I need a low water, low maintenance yard.” You might wish to consider a new lawn grass alternative, as lush as the real thing, that was recently developed in Japan.

Mabel McKay claimed a spirit visited her in a dream. It taught the Long Valley Cache Creek Pomo woman from Northern California how to weave, and its spiritual guidance infused other areas of her life’s work, too, from tending land to gathering sedge roots and other natural materials for her baskets.

By Matt Le Vesque When I received my training in construction management, there were 16 distinct “Divisions of Construction” to deal with on a project. Things like tunneling was found under the section titled, “Site Construction — Division 2.

It’s an age-old question, one that has kept philosophers, engineers and homeowners awake at night since the dawn of time: Did I tighten that pipe enough or is it going to leak? Pipes are designed to withstand a huge amount of pressure.

Burglars strike every 14.6 seconds in this country, carting off an average of $2,230 in property, according to the FBI. It’s the crime most likely to affect homeowners, who all too often make it easier for burglars since about 34 percent of the crooks gain entry via an unlocked front door.

LOMA LINDA >> Clark’s Nutrition and natural foods market in Loma Linda continues its monthly lecture series this week with tips on planting for the cooler months ahead. The series — which features guest lecturers on topics ranging from gardening to dietary supplements to health trends — has been going strong for more than a year and a half.

Fifty years ago, the fabled Gamble House in Pasadena opened as a museum when the family gave it to the city of Pasadena and the University of Southern California. Inside the historic California bungalow is a treasure trove of Mission-style furniture, beautiful woodwork, lead glass and glimpses of the family that once called it home.

In Acciaroli, a remote fishing village in southern Italy, around 15 percent of the population (300 out of 2,000 people) are at least 100 years old. This fact aroused the curiosity of Alan Maisel, professor of cardiology at UC San Diego.

Dirt and dust bunnies make it clear when a house needs cleaning, but it may not be that easy to determine when it comes to the air inside. The Environmental Protection Agency considers indoor air quality one of the top environmental risks to public health, saying that in some cases air pollutants are at least twice as high indoors as they are outdoors.

Emergencies come in all shapes and sizes, and Southern Californians are often reminded about the potential risks and dangers that include wildfires, earthquakes, flash floods and Santa Ana winds. Preparation is important, safety experts say, when it comes to taking the edge off anxieties and also lessening the blow if tragedy happens.

Gerda Maxey is an artist in the truest sense. As you tour her home and garden in Sylmar, you appreciate Maxey’s need to be surrounded by art, both indoors and out. Maxey is a portraitist and her walls are covered with oil paintings she has created over the years, including a portrait of her great-granddaughter dressed in blue.

It makes perfect sense that bloodleaf should be growing well in the garden that surrounds the classroom of Joe Montanez at Alfred Nobel Middle School in Northridge. Montanez has been a horticulture instructor for 35 years, a clear indication that teaching students about plants is, well, in his blood.

How many bureaucrats does it take to screw in a light bulb? Answer: Two; one to report to elected officials that everything is being done according to the Environmental Impact Report, engineering reports, budgets and schedules, and the other to screw the light bulb into the faucet.

“Free” means a lot of things, and a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Today, I’d like to compare and contrast what “free” means to people who provide products and services in the home improvement industry (AKA contractors) and what “free” probably means to people who are likely to purchase products and services in the home improvement industry (AKA consumers).